Coil spring and method of fabrication thereof
AssigneeRessorts Liberte Inc.
InventorsRene Fournier, Francois Masson, Luc Desjardins, Germain Belanger
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Abstract
A composite spring made of a wire of a longitudinal axis curved around a spring axis in a winding direction and a method of fabrication thereof, the spring, the wire comprising a core; and fibers layers wound around the core, and an angular positioning, relative to the spring axis, of each one of the fiber layers being selected, along a length of the core, depending on the winding direction of the wire about the spring axis, to adjust at least one of: high natural frequency of the spring, resistance to buckling and resistance to tensile and compressive stress components induced by a compressive load on the spring.
Claims20
A composite spring made of a wire having a longitudinal axis and curved around a spring axis in a winding direction, wherein said wire comprises:
- a core;
- and
- fiber layers wound around said core;
- wherein said fiber layers comprise innermost fibers closest to said core, outermost fibers and intermediate fibers between said innermost fibers and said outermost fibers, an orientation of said outermost fibers relative to the longitudinal axis of the wire being selected, for a given winding direction of the spring, along a length of said core, according to a target energy stored by the spring in compression per unit mass,
- the orientation of the outermost fibers being a negative angle relative to the longitudinal axis for the given winding direction of the spring being a right winding direction, and
- the orientation of the outermost fibers being a positive angle relative to the longitudinal axis for the given winding direction of the spring being a left winding direction.
A method for fabricating a composite spring of a given winding direction along a spring axis thereof, comprising:
- A) fabricating a composite uncured preform comprising a core and at least one innermost fiber closest to the core, outermost fibers and intermediate fibers wound between the at least one innermost fiber and the outermost fibers;
- B) selecting, depending on the given winding direction of the spring, an orientation of the outermost fibers relative to a longitudinal axis of the preform along a length of said preform, according to a target energy stored by the spring in compression per unit mass,
- the orientation of the outermost fibers being a negative angle relative to the longitudinal axis for the given winding direction of the spring being a right winding direction, and
- the orientation of the outermost fibers being a positive angle relative to the longitudinal axis for the given winding direction of the spring being a left winding direction;
- C) shaping the uncured preform relative to the spring axis into the spring of the given winding direction;
- and
- D) curing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.